Potterton Kingfisher floor standing boiler - about 8 years old
Gravity HW pumped CH
All rads have Thermostatic Valves
Do not have a central room thermostat
System working happily for the four years that we have been in the house.
All rads bar one, and all rad thermostats replaced four years ago
Aggravating factor - 3 year old child and 10 month old baby to consider.
The Story so far -
Started to overheat Xmas 2006 - CH Header tank was boiling and overflowing via overflow vent in to CW tank, loft space full of steam condensing all over stored items - nasty
Called Corgi registered local heating engineer - won't come out till new year.
New Year - Engineer arrives - says its the thermostat - needs replacing - will order and replace. Says that overflow from header into CW tank is a no-no and should be replaced to overflow independantly outside - sensible. Also, CH system is clogged and needs Powerflushing - agreed this would be a good idea - can't do the powerflush and overflow until early Feb (bit of a wait really, but okay)
One week later
Engineer replaces themostat, checks it's working - paid
That evening - boiler stops working and goes into lockout mode - I tun off, re-set, starts up again. Rads are full of air.
Next day - call engineer - arrives same day (good) bleeds rads -
Shortly afterwards - CH systems isn't functioning properly
Call engineer - who advises that this may be so until the system is powerflushed
Wait and hope.........
Boiler overheats again - dirty CW tank, loft full of steam etc
repeat occasionally until
Feb 2007 - Engineer power flushes system and replaces overflow - boiier thermostat now has to be turned right down low now (dot 2 or 3 on scale) - paid
Afterwards
Overheats again - this time the new plastic replacement pipe from the CH header tank collapses from the heat, almost melted !!
Call engineer - can't come out for a week (I'm really ticked off at this point, but refrain from getting irate as consider that this will not help (danger to children explained) )
Can't seem to bleed upstairs rads - used to be able to do this easily - bit odd!
Rads behaving oddly -as in themostats seem to be able to get stuck open - wierd!
Overheats again - scalding water - loads of steam in loft etc etc
Waiting for engineer - due 14/02/2007
start to look for other sources of help in advance of him arriving - need some ammo!
I can't pin down when the problem happens to a specific set of circumstances - sorry
Can someone please give me some advice about this problem, I'm really frustrated, as it's been dragging on far too long.
I have read some posts on the site which seem to relate to similar problems - but I'd really appreciate a response specific to this problem in order that I don't get charged for a load of components that may not need replacing. We've already spent over £500 and can't afford bills for unnecessary replacement of components if they are not required.
Any and all advice will be gratefuly received.
P.S. I'd like to apologise in advance if I've done anything inappropriate in this post - I'm a newbie in this respect - so please be gentle with me!
Gravity HW pumped CH
All rads have Thermostatic Valves
Do not have a central room thermostat
System working happily for the four years that we have been in the house.
All rads bar one, and all rad thermostats replaced four years ago
Aggravating factor - 3 year old child and 10 month old baby to consider.
The Story so far -
Started to overheat Xmas 2006 - CH Header tank was boiling and overflowing via overflow vent in to CW tank, loft space full of steam condensing all over stored items - nasty
Called Corgi registered local heating engineer - won't come out till new year.
New Year - Engineer arrives - says its the thermostat - needs replacing - will order and replace. Says that overflow from header into CW tank is a no-no and should be replaced to overflow independantly outside - sensible. Also, CH system is clogged and needs Powerflushing - agreed this would be a good idea - can't do the powerflush and overflow until early Feb (bit of a wait really, but okay)
One week later
Engineer replaces themostat, checks it's working - paid
That evening - boiler stops working and goes into lockout mode - I tun off, re-set, starts up again. Rads are full of air.
Next day - call engineer - arrives same day (good) bleeds rads -
Shortly afterwards - CH systems isn't functioning properly
Call engineer - who advises that this may be so until the system is powerflushed
Wait and hope.........
Boiler overheats again - dirty CW tank, loft full of steam etc
repeat occasionally until
Feb 2007 - Engineer power flushes system and replaces overflow - boiier thermostat now has to be turned right down low now (dot 2 or 3 on scale) - paid
Afterwards
Overheats again - this time the new plastic replacement pipe from the CH header tank collapses from the heat, almost melted !!
Call engineer - can't come out for a week (I'm really ticked off at this point, but refrain from getting irate as consider that this will not help (danger to children explained) )
Can't seem to bleed upstairs rads - used to be able to do this easily - bit odd!
Rads behaving oddly -as in themostats seem to be able to get stuck open - wierd!
Overheats again - scalding water - loads of steam in loft etc etc
Waiting for engineer - due 14/02/2007
start to look for other sources of help in advance of him arriving - need some ammo!
I can't pin down when the problem happens to a specific set of circumstances - sorry
Can someone please give me some advice about this problem, I'm really frustrated, as it's been dragging on far too long.
I have read some posts on the site which seem to relate to similar problems - but I'd really appreciate a response specific to this problem in order that I don't get charged for a load of components that may not need replacing. We've already spent over £500 and can't afford bills for unnecessary replacement of components if they are not required.
Any and all advice will be gratefuly received.
P.S. I'd like to apologise in advance if I've done anything inappropriate in this post - I'm a newbie in this respect - so please be gentle with me!